With up to 140W charging and a TFT display, Ugreen has made one of the best power banks around.

Showrunner D.T. Carpenter and Vidu's Evan Liao tell us about the challenges and opportunities in making a 50-episode series with AI.

MacworldHave you noticed how much room photos take up now? Sure, theyre HD, but at what cost? If you want a simple, affordable place to keep all your files, try FileJump. Instead of paying monthly for cloud storage like Dropbox or iCloud, now you can pay just once for 2TB of cloud storage that lasts for life. Its also on sale for only $69.97 (reg. $467).FileJump is a secure, affordable way to store, share, and collaborate on your files. Things like drag-and-drop uploads and media previews make your cloud storage about as convenient as keeping your files saved locally. And with the AES encryption, theyre really locked down against anyone else trying to get in.Need to share something quickly? FileJump lets you do just that with a few easy file-sharing options, whether youre sending a link or giving access to team members or clients.March 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the cutoff to get a 2TB FileJump lifetime subscription on sale for $69.97.FileJump 2TB Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription $69.97See DealStackSocial prices subject to change.

After announcing its next project, Cronos: The New Dawn, last October, Bloober Team has confirmed an appearance for the sci-fi horror title at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase.Airing from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) live on March 20th, viewers can expect some brief gameplay and a new exclusive interview with the team. Bloober will also answer questions from the community and tease something more. Your guess is as good as ours, but given that its out this year, perhaps well get a date for the full gameplay reveal.Cronos: The New Dawn is coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Starting in the future, where a terrible event has transformed humans into monstrous creatures, players must venture back to the past to harvest humans. They must then bring their essences to the future at the behest of the Collective.Bloober Team has noted games like Dead Space, Alan Wake, and Resident Evil as inspirations, while the sci-fi premise helped distinguish it from Silent Hill 2 remake. Stay tuned for more details later this week.Tune into the #FutureGamesShow Spring Showcase next week for exclusive insights about #CronosNewDawn! Then watch FGS Live From GDC to learn even more!You can expect: exclusive dev interview short gameplay snippets answering community questions tease of sth more pic.twitter.com/VZVzIl9g0s Cronos: The New Dawn | Wishlist Now! (@CronosNewDawn) March 13, 2025

With over eight million copies sold in three days, Capcoms Monster Hunter Wilds is its new biggest success. Of course, this is only the beginning part of the series appeal is the extensive post-launch support like new monsters, weapons, armor, and more. In a new video celebrating 21 years of the franchise, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, game director Yuya Tokuda and art director Kaname Fujioka teased upcoming Title Updates. Though the first arrives in early April, Tsujimoto said, Were already working on title updates, so keep an eye out for news about those.While we know that Title Update 2 is coming this Summer and adds another new monster, Fujioka revealed that, We have lots in store, both already announced updates and some were still working on, and were doing our best to make the game as enjoyable as possible for everyone.There will be more announcements in the future, and Tokuda also promised that the team will continue making adjustments, through not only the planned title updates but in updates released at other times based on fan feedback.Finally, Tsujimoto teased, There is so much more in store, not just for Wilds but for the series as a whole. Potential tie-ins with other Monster Hunter titles? A new Monster Hunter Stories? Time will tell, but its intriguing all the same.Monster Hunter Wilds is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here we gave it an eight out of ten.

Sunday, March 16th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerFree tool: Lens Cap for Blenderhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"VFX artist Rob Dickinson (Decoded) has released Lens Cap for Blender, a handy free add-on that adds new features to the open-source 3D apps camera system.Time-saving add-on streamlines animating object visibility and depth of fieldLens Cap has a number of features, but perhaps the most frustration-saving is the Camera Sync mode, which matches the visibility of objects in the 3D Viewport to their render settings.It makes it possible to properly playblast scenes in which objects are keyframed to appear or disappear, like destruction shots, rather than having to do a final render to test the effect.Other features include DOF Finder, for quickly adding depth of field effects to shots.Users can set the focal point to the 3D Cursor, making it possible to position focus simply by clicking in the 3D Viewport: in the video above, you can see it in use to create a quick focus pull.The final feature, an active camera list, displays all of the cameras in a scene in one place in the interface, making it easier to switch between them, or keyframe camera switches.Price and system requirementsLens Cap for Blender is compatible with Blender 4.3. Its a free download.Download the free Lens Cap for Blender add-on from Gumroad(Enter a figure of $0 to download it for free, or make a voluntary donation)Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Related Topics # active camera list # add-on # Blender # camera # Camera Sync mode # depth of field # DoF # DOF Finder # download # focus pull # free # Lens Cap # object visibility # open source # plugin # Rob Dickinson # script # system requirements Latest NewsFree tool: Lens Cap for BlenderDecoded's frustration-saving add-on adds new features to Blender's camera system, streamlining keyframing DOF and object visibility.Sunday, March 16th, 2025Celsys releases Clip Studio Paint 4Check out the new features in the digital painting software for comics, illustrations and concept art, including the new Puppet Warp.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Assetify 2.1 converts Blender assets to game-ready formatsAsset baking and export add-on can now bake PBR textures from any Blender shader set-up, not just the Principled BSDF shader.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Tutorial: Creature Combat Animation in MayaDiscover how to create a King Kong-style creature fight sequence with The Gnomon Workshop's new five-hour Maya masterclass.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Wonder Studio becomes Autodesk Flow StudioAI-based service for VFX and animation gets rebranded as part of Autodesk's Flow cloud platform. Check out its latest features.Friday, March 14th, 2025Polygonflow releases Dash 1.9Check out the new features in the Unreal Engine 5 world building tool, including Runtime Virtual Texturing and an Advanced Water Shader.Thursday, March 13th, 2025More NewsGet KitBash3D's Gaea fantasy architecture asset pack for freeCheck out open-source Blender character generator MPFB 2Check out neat AI-trained hand mocap tool HandCraft ProTutorial: Creating Production-Ready Hero Assets Using MariAMD releases Capsaicin 1.2AMD launches FSR 4, AFMF 2.1 and RIS 2.0AMD launches Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070D5 Render 2.10 adds real-time path tracingDownload Marmoset's free materials for Toolbag 5Autodesk lays off 1,350 staff3d-io releases Unwrella-IO5 key features for CG artists in Godot 4.4Older Posts

Saturday, March 15th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerCelsys releases Clip Studio Paint 4html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Originally posted on 3 January 2025, and updated for the final release.Celsys has released Clip Studio Paint 4.0, the latest version of its digital drawing, painting and animation software.New features include a puppet warp tool for posing 2D characters, and updates to the softwares 3D toolset, including the option to import mocap data to use as reference poses.A digital drawing and painting tool for comics, illustrations and concept artFirst released in Japan over two decades ago, and previously marketed as Manga Studio in the West, Clip Studio Paint is a digital painting app for both desktop and mobile systems.Although best known as a tool for creating comics, for which it has a dedicated set of tools, it is also used to produce illustrations, concept art, and 2D animations.Updates to the software were available free to existing users until the release of Clip Studio Paint 2.0 in March 2023, when Celsys switched to a new schedule of major, paid annual releases.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/250103_ClipStudioPaint4_PuppetWarp.mp4Clip Studio Paint 4: new Puppet Warp systemNew features in Clip Studio Paint 4 include the Puppet Warp system (shown above).It enables users to quickly pose 2D characters by pinning parts of the body in place, then rotating and deforming the rest of the character around the pinned points.Updates to the 3D toolsetThe softwares 3D toolset, which enables users to import and manipulate 3D models for use as references or background elements within an image, has also been updated.New features include the option to paint directly onto the surface of 3D objects, either to add basic surface colors, or to paint guidelines or patterns onto reference objeccts.It is also now possible to import 3D models in STL format, and animations in BVH format.BVH support was actually introduced in Clip Studio Paint 3.1 the release announcement include changes made in the 3.x updates and is intended to enable artists to choose frames from imported motion-capture data to use as pose references for characters.It is also now possible to customize the facial expressions of 3D avatars imported in VRM format.New Quick Filters and Quick Effects for interactive image adjustmentsThe softwares Filters system has also been updated.A new set of Quick Filters and Quick Effects (shown above) let users make interactive adjustments to an image again, a feature originally introduced in Clip Studio Paint 3.2.There are also new filters for extracting line art from images, intended for preparing scanned drawings for digital coloring, and for applying lens blur.Workflow improvements include better snappingWorkflow improvements include object snapping, with users now able to snap vector layers, rules and text to grids, guides, other rulers, and the edges or center of the canvas.It is also possible to snap to content on the current layer or reference layers with the Lasso tool.You can find a list of other changes, which include the option to color-code layers in the animation toolsets Timeline palette, in the release announcement.Initial reactions from users were mixed, with opinion divided on the value of the 3D toolset, and calls for native CMYK support and performance improvements to the brush toolset.Price, system requirements and release dateClip Studio Paint 4.0 is compatible with Windows 10+, macOS 13.0+, iOS/iPadOS 17.0+ and Android 12+.New perpetual licenses of the Pro edition, which includes the core feature set, but which restricts animation to 24 frames, have a standard price of $58.50. New perpetual licenses of the Ex edition, which removes the limit on the length of animations, and adds features for creating multi-page projects, have a standard price of $258.Subscriptions are priced according to the number of devices you want to use the software on, but for desktops and laptops, rental starts at $4.49/month or $26.99/year for Pro and $8.99/month and $76.99/year for Ex.Read a full list of new features in Clip Studio Paint 4.0 in Celsyss release announcementHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsFree tool: Lens Cap for BlenderDecoded's frustration-saving add-on adds new features to Blender's camera system, streamlining keyframing DOF and object visibility.Sunday, March 16th, 2025Celsys releases Clip Studio Paint 4Check out the new features in the digital painting software for comics, illustrations and concept art, including the new Puppet Warp.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Assetify 2.1 converts Blender assets to game-ready formatsAsset baking and export add-on can now bake PBR textures from any Blender shader set-up, not just the Principled BSDF shader.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Tutorial: Creature Combat Animation in MayaDiscover how to create a King Kong-style creature fight sequence with The Gnomon Workshop's new five-hour Maya masterclass.Saturday, March 15th, 2025Wonder Studio becomes Autodesk Flow StudioAI-based service for VFX and animation gets rebranded as part of Autodesk's Flow cloud platform. Check out its latest features.Friday, March 14th, 2025Polygonflow releases Dash 1.9Check out the new features in the Unreal Engine 5 world building tool, including Runtime Virtual Texturing and an Advanced Water Shader.Thursday, March 13th, 2025More NewsGet KitBash3D's Gaea fantasy architecture asset pack for freeCheck out open-source Blender character generator MPFB 2Check out neat AI-trained hand mocap tool HandCraft ProTutorial: Creating Production-Ready Hero Assets Using MariAMD releases Capsaicin 1.2AMD launches FSR 4, AFMF 2.1 and RIS 2.0AMD launches Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070D5 Render 2.10 adds real-time path tracingDownload Marmoset's free materials for Toolbag 5Autodesk lays off 1,350 staff3d-io releases Unwrella-IO5 key features for CG artists in Godot 4.4Older Posts

A fascinating variety of Irish facts, brought to you by Medium writersThe meaning of the giraffe in those movie ratings posters + how to visualize setbacks without becoming a pessimist (Issue #289)Published inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min readJust now-- Happy St. Patricks Day! To celebrate, here are some lesser-known facts about Irish topics I found on Medium. I hope youll find them to be good craic (pronounced crack; an Irish slang term for a delightful and fun experience):A popular Irish dish served at celebrations is colcannon (mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage). Its sometimes used as a fortune-telling dish by mixing small items and trinkets into the recipe. If your portion contains, say, a coin, it could mean a windfall of money was coming your way, whereas a stick may mean trouble for the future of your marriage. (Rachel Berry, DTR)The Irish language is full of magically emotive and dramatic phrases for everyday life. Its also an endangered language, with only an estimated 100,000 people who have learned it as a first language. To help keep it alive, consider learning some of its unique phrases to practice today. For instance, the Irish greeting cad mle filte (pronounced: kay-od mee-leh foyle-cha) means a hundred thousand welcomes. (Ben Dillon)An Irish tradition that deserves more attention? The Womens Christmas (Nollaig na mBan, pronounced: null-egg-nah-mawn), which occurs yearly on Jan 6th. The purpose of the day is to give women a break after the busy holiday season by having the men do the chores that women usually do for their families. (Lucinda Munro Cook)One mystery in Ireland concerns dozens of stone towers with circular bases that are found all over the island no one knows who built them or why, even though they all look the same and seem to have been built during the same Medieval period. One new theory: Since theyre usually found above underground waterways (which makes the ground above them dangerous for human habitation), could they have been related to water dowsing (a spiritual method of sourcing water) or perhaps even an Irish version of feng shui? (Geoff Ward)Somehow, I never really clocked that the Guinness in Guinness Book of World Records is referring to the same kind of Guinness I like to enjoy while playing trivia (the irony of this is not lost on me). The whole reason it exists is because, back in the 50s, the managing director of the brewery got into a friendly argument over facts in an Irish pub and commissioned some researchers to help him create a book of popular facts and figures to settle the debate! (Carol Labuzzetta, MS)Did you know that the origin of the word boycott has Irish roots? Not linguistically, but historically. Charles Boycott was an Englishman who owned and leased land to farmers in Ireland, whom he would also hire for jobs on his properties. He treated his tenants and his workers so horribly and was so universally despised that they would often go on strike or would refuse to pay their rent, which led to his surname being forever entwined with that act of protest. (Andrew Martin) Im also readingOne of my favorite things to do is to search Medium about specific topics I want a different perspective on, which is how I found this review of Anora that helped me understand why it won the Oscar Award for Best Picture: Anora rejects the heart of gold and disposal sex worker tropes so familiar in media for a three-dimensional character struggling with both the insecurity and banality of this industry. (Alex Mell-Taylor)Humor writer Emily Menez managed to track down Greg Clarke, the artist who created the iconic movie ratings poster visualizing each one, from G through NC-17, in cartoons its the one with the giraffe, if that helps. Speaking of which, he finally explains why he chose to include it: Ive always been fond of drawing anthropomorphized animals, and animals attending movies amused me. he explains. Giraffes always struck me as gentle, innocent animals and seemed perfect for a G rating. Your daily dose of practical wisdomPessimists expect the worst and surrender to it. Stoics visualize setbacks to build resilience. (Elan Kesilman-Davin, Ph.D.)

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster sells over 5m copies | News-in-briefOverall, the Final Fantasy series has sold over 200 million units globallyImage credit: Square Enix News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on March 17, 2025 This is a News-in-brief article, our short format linking to an official source for more information. Read more about this story by following the link below:Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster sells over 5m copies

The Past, Present, and FutureWelcome to Photography Week!Join us from 9/16-9/20 as we examine the photography genre and explore what developers can learn and apply to their own projects.Read The Genre BreakdownWhat can developers learn from Photography Games?From 'Welcome to Photography Week' by Holly Green, Game Developer Community Editorial CoordinatorPhotography has become one of the most popular ways we interact with video games. Through the simple act of taking a photo, photography games and photo modes implore us to notice our surroundings, document our experience, and take a moment to commit to memory the images and emotions that we felt along the way.To better explore those connections and mechanics, Game Developer is publishing a series of new articles digging into the topic, and highlighting some classics as well. Come along with us as we take a look at the history of photography in video games and its popular uses within the genre and preview the new interviews, essays, and deep dives publishing in the days to come.Well be highlighting reader-submitted articles throughout the week and theres tons of great stuff to look forward to, like an essay from Beasts of Maravilla Island developer Michelle Olson about eschewing photographic critique, an interview with the developers of Texas Chainsaw Massacre on why they went with the free release of an idyllic photography minigame as a prequel to their horror title, and a poignant feature from our senior editor Bryant Francis on what basic photography tips can teach us about making better photo modes.Well also be revisiting interviews, blogs and features from Game Developers recent past, unearthing postmortems from games like Pupperazzi and TOEM as well as interviews with indie developers about how theyre using photography in video games. Stay tuned for insight on how these games are put together and the features that developers find vital to the photography game experience.If this topic fascinates you, theres still time to submit an article to our blog section about photography games and photo modes in video games.Take a peek at our blog submission guidelines and FAQ, head over to our blog submission page and send us your thoughts.Learn How to Submit Your BlogThe Player Experience of Scoring (& What is a "Good Photo" Anyway??)From 'The eye of the beholder: Measuring player success in photography games' by Michelle OlsonWhile scoring photos as a mechanic does provide extra feedback on the players actions, and can create ways for content to be gated or progression to be measured, it creates a very specific mindset when one is taking photos in the game.To me, this type of photography feels more like client work, rather than artistic expression. Not only is there a prompt of what to take a picture of, but there are strict guidelines on how that subject should be photographed.While Pokemon Snap offers some variety by providing different opportunities to photograph the same subject in different environments, players arent able to have full freedom of composition.Featured BlogThe eye of the beholder: Measuring player success in photography gamesAn exploration on how different photography games measure player progress, and how to balance progression metrics and artistic freedom.Read MoreIn fact, there are often ways to achieve the best shot - a particular photo of a particular behavior that will always be worth more points than any other photo a player takes with the same subject. While these moments are often adorable and lovely, it creates an opportunity where one very specific composition is incentivized, and disincentivizes taking other interesting photos of the same subject.This is a totally valid way of approaching this type of gameplay - to give a prompt, and ensure the player captures the prompt to the specifications of what the game wants to see. In essence, this gamifies the art of photography.But, I think its important to ask ourselves as designers of photography games - do I want this to feel like client work? Or do I want this to feel like artistic expression? Either is appropriate, so long as we are deeply intentional about it.Read the Full BlogSweet Snaps & Expressive EditsAlekon lets players make the picture perfect photo albumThis Pokmon Snap-inspired game uses robust photo editing tools to create an expressive space for players.Read MoreDynamic Photos in a 2D WorldDeep Dive: How custom tools made the 2D photo mode of A Highland Song singPhotography isn't just for 3D games. Here's how inkle gave players a dynamic photo mode in a sidescrolling exploration game.Read MoreOn-Rails CreativityInside the cute and creepy world of Penko ParkThe developers tell us how they curated an expressive set of creatures to photograph and why they chose on-rails over an open-world experience.Read MoreCan you help players figure out what needs to be in the frame?From 'What basic photography tips can teach us about making better photo modes' by Bryant FrancisBefore I worked in games, I was in TV and film production. Before I was in TV and Film production, I was in film school. Before I ever shot a moving picture, I took a photography course, and before I took that photography course, my Grandfather, Larry S. Cohan, taught me how to shoot photos.In Fall 2009 he was published a (still-archived) story called "Better PhotosNo Cost" in a Maryland magazine called Outlook by the Bay, a publication for senior citizens of the Chesapeake Bay region. It documents the basics of photography he didn't just share with me but seemed obsessed with everyone having some understanding of.From the Editors: Bryant FrancisWhat basic photography tips can teach us about making better photo modesAdvice for 'mature Marylanders' can be good for players too.Read MoreSome of his grumpiness still drips off the page. "Don't bore your friends with photos that would bore you if they weren't your own," he wrote. "If you're shooting the sunrise over Bar Harbor, Maine, don't try to include your half-asleep spouse." Sarcasm was a second language for Grandpa, but I remember he seemed sincerely frustrated at how his peers didn't understand the basics of photography, equaled only by his frustration of how they were intimidated by computers.For Photography Week, I revisited his guide and thought about how he was trying to teach fellow retirees better ways to take shots. They're good tipsones I still think about when having fun in a photo mode like the ones in Pacific Drive, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, or Marvel's Spider-Man 2.They're so good, in fact, that they could help you make a better photo mode for your next game.Read the Full Blog